


is now really the time to ask for relationship advice?

by Mars_and_Moon



Series: how did we end up here? || maggie & eliot brotp [1]
Category: Leverage
Genre: 500 words of nothing. there is no plot., Brotp, Fluff, Gen, Grumpy Eliot Spencer, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Multi, Relationship Advice, god. the potential of this friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:28:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24352120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mars_and_Moon/pseuds/Mars_and_Moon
Summary: It takes Maggie a second to remember that Eliot might have literal skeletons in a closet somewhere. He probably does, the more she thinks about it
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer, Maggie Collins & Eliot Spencer
Series: how did we end up here? || maggie & eliot brotp [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1787749
Comments: 9
Kudos: 138





	is now really the time to ask for relationship advice?

**Author's Note:**

> their friendship is iconic. leverage itself is iconic.

"Literally everything about this is illegal," Maggie said, while watching Eliot punch another guard in the face. Maggie sees blood, but she isn't sure who it belongs to. Eliot grabs her arm, and they start walking.

Eliot, walking at a brisk pace that Maggie can't match due to her heels, flashes her a quick smile before responding: "And we have got to stop meeting like this."

What a true statement. She doesn't actively seek out danger, but for some reason it seems keen on following her. The same way that see keeps running into Eliot Spencer of all people. This isn't to say she doesn't like him, but it's borderlining creepy, she wouldn't totally put it past Nate to get somebody to follow her. She does like Eliot though, and has on a few occasions wished that he had ended up actually being a professor of art history, instead of, well, this. 

"Hypothetical question, Ms. Collins?" Eliot asks out of the blue. 

Startled, by both the formality and yet the familiarity, Maggie also stops walking. Eliot places a hand on her back, between her shoulders and keeps them moving. "If you must, Mr. Spencer." 

He smiles somewhat, and for some reason it clicks in her head that he seems nervous. Not three minutes he punched three separate guards, all of whom had guns, and here he was nervous. Maggie has a feeling that Eliot Spencer doesn't get nervous, he's either letting down his guard _(unlikely)_ , or putting on an act _(still unlikely, he doesn't seem the type)._

"You've obviously been in relationships. Happy ones, I presume given the fact that you willingly had a child. I was just wondering if you had any…well. Advice?" 

Wait. 

_What_? 

"Advice?" He gives her another smile, the blank kind that Maggie still sees on her own face some days. The mistake face, when you realize that telling someone you have a dead son on the first date is the worst move ever. The face you make when people just assume that you're coping with life, because then they don't have to give a damn. 

Oh. 

_Oh_. 

"I'd say honesty, but really that's a lie people tell themselves," Maggie blurts out, "Obviously, lying about the important stuff is a no, but who doesn't have a few skeletons in the closet?" 

It takes her a second to remember that Eliot might have literal skeletons in a closet somewhere. He probably does, the more she thinks about it, and yet he's here bailing her out after somebody tried to shoot her because she resembles a thief. He placed his hand on her in the least sexual way possible, and isn't that different. Then he asked her a legitimate question, something that Maggie doesn't have to be a detective for to see as something that never happens. 

By now they've reached the door to the outside, and Maggie has little trouble imagining that she has a plane ticket booked in her name. But, he asked for advice, and she has something. 

"Be there," she says. "Just, be there when they want you to be. Sometimes when they don't, but not always. It's all that matters in the end; if you were there."

She doesn't gauge his reaction because she opens the door. She's spent a long time learning when to walk away, and now is the time to walk away, otherwise the words won't stick like they need to. 

**Author's Note:**

> please, yell about my brotp (or ot3) in the comments


End file.
